Thank you for the Superintendent’s Gala Art Mini Grants. With this grant, I can offer my classes the opportunity to work with clay. At Robert W. Groves High School, the students are ex-cited and engaged to create pottery that they will have for life. Clay offers the students the experience of molding and forming that they do not get anywhere else. Last year, I was able to serve 238 students with the clay and glaze materials that you provided and hope to serve 340 students this year.
-Robert C. Carter, Groves High School
Funds from the Superintendent’s Mini Grant for the Arts made it possible for students at Marshpoint Elementary and Coastal Middle School to exchange art with children in Africa. Through a program called Children Inspiring Hope, our students created artwork around the theme of “Stories,” which was hand-delivered to students in Ghana. Next month we will get to watch a video of the students’ reactions when they were given our art and receive artwork that they created around their stories and culture. Thank you for this fantastic opportunity for our students!
-Debbie Looye, Marshpoint Elementary School & Coastal Middle School
The hummingbird electronic kits purchased with the funds from the mini grant integrate coding, art, and creativity into the Georgia Standards of Excellence. My students have studied the third-grade standard about fossils. They are now able to bring it to life by writing a story about how a dinosaur becomes a fossil and then creating an interactive diorama with moving parts and lights to depict a scene from their story.
-Susan Daly, May Howard Elementary
The Superintendent’s mini grant has allowed me to purchase sets of colorful magnetic tiles for my visual arts classroom. These tiles are a fun and educational way for students to build and experiment with three-dimensional construction, learn about physics and weight distribution, create architectural design and add a playful aspect to the learning process. The skills and talents that are learned with these tiles can then be utilized within the curriculum of all three-dimensional projects.
-Joshua Baluh, STEM Academy at Bartlett
The clay grant for Southwest Elementary will allow for all students to explore clay as an art form for self-expression and function. Students will understand the use of clay in their immediate community through the artist Dave the Potter and the resourceful use of clay across multiple cultures. Ultimately, students will understand the value of clay as a material to develop skill, an art form that connects us to our community and product to serve the greater good.
-Paige Byrne, Southwest Elementary
Thank you to Dr. Levett and her team for awarding Isle of Hope K8 with this grant. These materials will go towards helping improve the musicianship of our band students. This grant represents the commitment that Savannah-Chatham County Schools is displaying in promoting arts education. Thank you from both myself and my students.
-Thomas Eggleston, Isle of Hope K8
Thanks to the 2018 Superintendent's Gala, the Superintendent's Mini-Grant will make possible my project: Piano Studio Technology. With the help of two Chromebooks and a subscription to Noteflight Premium, my students will be able to compose original music and turn those artistic creations into actual printed sheet music. Countless web-based programs, accessible on the Chromebooks, will enhance music theory curriculum in our classroom and allow for some pretty awesome differentiation tools. My students are so fortunate to benefit from this generous, art-based opportunity!
-Erica Gillette, Garrison School for the Arts
This year I received, along with my co-director Allison Sullivan, a grant to purchase a goose neck microphone for our performances in the Visual and Performing Arts Department. This will allow our students to be better heard when they perform in plays, concerts, and other performances. Without this grant, we would have had to wait a long time to acquire this additional re-source. Many students, parents, and community members will benefit from the microphones when they perform and attend performances. Thank you so much for supporting the Arts!
-Tracey Buchner, Islands High School
